Here are two more story boards for So-Called Living. Here you’ll learn a little more about what’s going on with Jack & Jill. This is also where the story starts to pick up. Not sure how much I can show you guys after these pages, but I’ll leak what I can ;)

Page 7: Set in front of an oversized moon.

Page 8: Looks like our couple gets into a little trouble. I made one request of Jamie on this page, and that was to turn jack around, so it looks more like he’s pulling (almost dragging) Jill away from an awkward situation rather than running for his life.

Got some more storyboards for you guys. This time around I’m posting the versions with my comments written on them so you guys can follow along, but I’ll also reiterate my notes for those who can’t make out my chicken scratch ;)

Page 5: Starts off with a news report on TV (if you couldn’t make it out). I actually had to black out one of the panels with comments, but trust me they were awesome comments ;)

Page 6: I originally wrote “..catch more bees with honey” but the saying is actually “… catch more flies with honey”. I considered leaving it in there and having Jill correct Jack, but I couldn’t get a good flow that I liked that wouldn’t change up the rest of the page.

In the panel where Jack is throwing out the chilly fries (the panel with the red scribbles over black scribbles) I requested that Jill be in the frame to continue the flow of her walking away without Jack that starts in the panel above (the panel with the black scribble that says “you showed him”.

Today is an exciting day! Well for me at least ;) We’ve got the entire first issue storyboarded out, and I think Jamie’s done an awesome job! I was worried that it would have come out looking stale and dull because of all the chatter I wrote, but with some dynamic angles and creative framing Jamie did an awesome job of making the book visually appealing. Let’s give the man a hand.

Today I’ve included the two first storyboarded pages (minus cover and credit page) as a sneak peek, and I’ll be uploading more thorough out the week. I’m getting together with Jamie later today to discuss a few edits I’d like to see to some of the other pages. I’ll be sure to upload those pages along with my notes so you guys cans follow along with the process. For the sake of the story, certain portions have been blacked out ;)

I was at the 2012 Toronto ComiCon this weekend to spread the the word about So-Called Living… it could have gone better. It wasn’t like I had a table or anything, just a few promo cards printed up at the last minute to promote this blog, but with all the other handouts going around, it’s easy for a little orange card to get lost in the mix. I only handed out about 50 cards, so I’m not expecting much. I’m thinking what I need is a hot chick to hand out cards, that’ll make them listen! It always got me to listen. Not to mention that I feel uncomfortable going up to strangers to promote myself. For someone else I could do it, for me… not so much. Anyway, back to the reason we’re here today. I got two more concepts from Jamie for you guys, Nick (top) & Casper (bottom). Nick by far is my favourite So-Called Living concept. Well done Jamie my boy, well done.

I’m headed off to the Toronto ComiCon this weekend and I thought, “Hey! What a great time to spread the word about So-Called Living”, but how…? Time was running out and I needed something fast! I send Jamie a message “Jamie, I need a bunny STAT!” Why a bunny you ask? You’ll have to wait and see. So later that night (after work) I get the bunny, and slap together a promotional give-away, in the form of a business card (They’re small, easy to carry and fast to get printed). Early the next morning I drop the file off at Kinko’s! A few hours later I get the call, “Your cards are ready”, thank you Kinko’s. I run over there on my break and pick ‘em up, and considering how fast these cards were thrown together, I think they came out all right.

Front

Back

Now printing these did cost a little more than I had hoped so I only got 100 done, and if I find any on the floor, I’m dusting them off and handing them out again :)

The moment all three of you have been waiting for! Our first look at Jack. These early concepts by the talented Mr. Riehl (pronounced “real”) put a face to the name. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m excited! I find having these images, (even in their early stages) really helps breath life into characters that until now were just words on paper, and as a writer, this is really going to help clarify the muddied up scenes that run through my head when writing the story.

Being that both me and Jamie have day jobs, making a comic on the side can be hard. It’s really not so much finding the time as it is finding the motivation. You see, both me a Jamie draw and write for a living (for video games not comics), and it gets hard to put in 8 hours of that everyday and and then go home and do it again, and I’m sure I’m not the only one out there with this problem. It might not be comics, but we all have dreams to do something more with our lives, to accomplish something, to get noticed, and it’s not easy. What is easy (unfortunetly), is to get too comfortable in your current situation. I don’t know about you guys, but personally it’s always been an uphill battle when it comes to actually sitting down and getting it done. So if you’re anything like me, here’s a tip. Set personal milestones for your project, tell yourself, hell tell other if it helps, that you will get project X done by date Y and then do it, don’t go back on your word, no excuses, just do it. And I don’t mean set a date like “sometime this year”, I mean pick a specific date, August 1st 2012 (for example), or set a bunch of smaller milestones to get you across to that date. So don’t say, “I’ll get the book printed and on the shelves by this date”, take it a piece at a time, for example:

March 17 – Final script

March 24 – First pass story boards

April 6 – Character concepts for Jack, Jill and Nick

etc.

Taking it in small pieces like this is the way to go. It keeps you focused, and gives you a better handle of how much time you actually have.

Now, with all that said, me and Jamie are hoping to have issue #1 of So-Called Living ready to show at FanExpo 2012 in Toronto… fingers crossed ;)

This will be the last character sheet for the next little bit while I switch my focus back to writing this bad boy. Hopefully we’ll have some art to go with these sheets soon, and when we do, you’ll find it here first ;)